


Translating touches

by AxolotlLumberjack



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, about small gestures, and how maybe they’re not so small, but Kara comes to a realisation, not entirely sure what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29064447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AxolotlLumberjack/pseuds/AxolotlLumberjack
Summary: “Hey!”  Kara frowned, picking up the pillow that had just hit her in the head and hugging it to her chest.Alex flopped down on the other end of the couch with a bottle of beer.  “Stop staring at the door like a puppy then.  Your gay is showing.”Kara sputtered.  “Wha- I’m not-”Alex just raised an eyebrow and Kara sunk down further into the couch.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 499





	Translating touches

“Hey!” Kara frowned, picking up the pillow that had just hit her in the head and hugging it to her chest.

Alex flopped down on the other end of the couch with a bottle of beer. “Stop staring at the door like a puppy then. Your gay is showing.”

Kara sputtered. “Wha- I’m not-”

Alex just raised an eyebrow and Kara sunk down further into the couch.

She pouted. “I’m not gay anyway.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Alright, sorry but ‘your pan is showing’ just sounds like I’m talking about the mess in your kitchen.”

“Well you try scrubbing it! I told you - it didn’t even come off with superspeed!”

Alex laughed and shook her head. “Well that’s your own fault for trying to make pancakes with laservision.”

Kara grumbled and pushed at Alex’s thighs with her toes. Alex slapped at them and when that didn’t stop her, tickled the soles of her feet. Kara shrieked and fell off the couch with a thud, pouting down into the floor as Alex laughed. At least the pillow still clutched to her chest had somewhat softened the blow to her floorboards.

Alex rested her feet on Kara’s back in retribution. “Anyway, stop trying to change the subject.”

Kara sighed and turned her face to the side so she could talk without inhaling dust. She really needed to vacuum. “What subject? You threw a pillow at me and then made fun of my cooking skills.”

“More like lack thereof. But that’s not what I’m talking about - I’m talking about you being all dumb and in love with Lena.”

Kara’s sputtering turned into a coughing fit as it unsettled some dust. Alex was no help. “I don’t- I’m not in love with Lena!”

She could feel Alex rolling her eyes from the floor. “Kara, your crush can be seen from space. I bet everyone on Mars knows about it.”

“Not fair - they can mindread.”

Alex prodded her heels into Kara’s back. “Not the point. Why don’t you just ask her out?”

Kara sighed. “She doesn’t like me like that.”

Alex’s tone softened a little. “What makes you say that?”

She sighed and rolled over, staring up at the ceiling and hugging the pillow to her chest. Alex replaced her feet on Kara’s stomach. “She gives the best cuddles when we have movie nights, and we hug and stuff when I go to her office for lunch, and one time I accidentally kissed her on the cheek as I was leaving but she seemed happy so I do that sometimes now. But she never kisses me, and whenever we’re at game night or around other people she’s not quite as cuddly and our hugs don’t last as long.”

“Your hugs are  _ shorter  _ around us?”

Kara ignored her. “And sometimes I say ‘I love you’ - ‘cause friends say that to each other too, right?” She glanced at Alex but didn’t wait for a reply. “And she’ll say it back, but she never just says it to me first. And I always tell her how good and smart and amazing she is - ‘cause she is and she gets all cute and blushy and she does that scrunchy smile when I do. Anyway… I know she cares about me too and we’re best friends and she does say nice things too, but not like I do.”

Alex was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. “Well maybe she just communicates differently.”

Before Kara had too long to ponder that, her front door opened and she sat up excitedly, dislodging Alex’s feet and almost making her slide off the couch too in the process. “Lena!”

Lena smiled at her over the couch and closed the front door. “Sorry I’m late - we had an issue down in one of the labs.”

Kara sprang up, stepping over a grumbling Alex, and rushed over to where Lena was hanging up her coat beside the door. “No, no it’s fine. Alex and I were just talking.”

“Oh yeah?” Lena unwrapped the scarf from around her neck with a smile. “What about?”

“Hm? Oh. Um…” She adjusted her glasses nervously. “Just this cute puppy I saw earlier.”

“Oh! That reminds me.” Lena reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, swiping through it before turning it to show Kara the screen with a grin. “He was sitting outside L-corp when I left.”

It was a picture of an extremely fluffy white puppy, panting happily up at the camera, wearing a supergirl bandana. 

Kara gasped, taking the phone from Lena to look more closely at the adorable ball of fluff. “He’s so cute! I can’t believe CEO Lena Luthor stopped to take a picture of a cute dog. Everyone’s going to think you’ve gone soft.”

She laughed, shrugging. “If it makes Kara Danvers smile I think it’s worth it.”

Kara beamed at her and pulled her into a hug. Lena melted into it and Kara couldn’t help but hold on a little tighter at the feel of Lena in her arms.

Alex wandered up to them and cleared her throat, breaking them out of their little bubble. She smiled warmly and hugged Lena but Kara would have called it more of a quick squeeze than a proper hug. Clearly Kara’s hugs were superior.

“Good to see you, Lena.”

“You too, Alex.” She held up a plastic bag and wiggled her eyebrows at Kara. “Now who wants potstickers while we watch?”

“You brought me potstickers?!” Kara lit up like the puppy in the photo. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Alex scoffed, taking the bag into the kitchen to unload them and divide them into bowls. (They’d learnt long ago that if they didn’t Kara would eat them all and leave none for the others. A few of Lena’s always seemed to somehow make their way into Kara’s bowl though.) “Oh please - she bought you an office full of flowers and an entire media company. Just accept it.”

They both blushed as Alex ignored them and took her bowl into the living room, flopping down on the couch and turning on the TV.

Their monthly movie night would normally have included Kelly but she was visiting James and so it was just the three of them. 

Lena picked up the remaining two bowls, sneakily redistributing them and handing Kara the one with extra. 

Kara smiled dopily at her. “I missed you.”

She laughed. “We had lunch together.” But she brushed their fingers together, squeezing Kara’s pinky affectionately before they moved to join Alex.

———

It had been Kara’s turn to choose the movie and so they watched Lilo and Stitch, much to Lena’s amusement and Alex’s chagrin. But the whole time, Kara couldn’t help but think about what Alex had said.

Lena stayed cuddled up beside her, not quite like when they were alone, but always close. At the moments she knew made Kara laugh, she’d grin and bump their shoulders together. When a bit where Kara would cry was coming up, she’d lean a little closer, tangling their fingers and giving three little squeezes.

And then Kara began to think about all the other little gestures. Fingers brushing as they walked side by side, intertwining on top of a table, running through her hair after a hard fight. Hands running down her arms as they part from a hug, over her shoulders as she passes behind her chair, flexing at her side as they stand too close but not close enough. A thumb stroking over her knuckles with understanding, over her forearm with empathy, over her cheek with affection.

When they first met, Lena would give a polite handshake at most. Lena may not initiate hugs very often but she always melted into them. She may not be entirely comfortable around other people but she always gravitated towards Kara in a room and let down her walls when they were alone. Lena may not say ‘I love you’ but she showed it in a thousand little gestures. In flowers, and a media company, and tickets to shows Kara rambled to her about. In her favourite foods, her favourite places, pictures of her favourite animals, just to make her smile. In the way she clears time in her CEO’s schedule to have lunch or watch movies or just listen, like even the small things are important. Like  _ Kara’s _ important.

Alex left soon after the end of the movie, claiming she had promised to video call with Kelly. Lena cleared away their bowls and drinks while Kara sat, lost in thought.

“Kara?” 

She blinked herself out of the daze, looking up at Lena who came to sit beside her, immediately tangling their hands together.

“Is everything alright?”

She smiled and squeezed Lena’s hand in reassurance. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

Lena tilted her head, a strand of hair falling from behind her ear, eyes filled with patient curiosity and care. “About what?”

Kara reached out and gently tucked the hair back behind her ear, trailing her hand softly across Lena’s jaw. “About how I’m in love with you. And that I’m hoping you might just be too.”

Lena’s fingers twitched in her hand, heart thumping in her chest and breath hitching in her throat.

Kara brushed her thumb over Lena’s cheek, waiting for Lena to make the next move, to show her how she wanted to be loved.

Lena ducked her head, bringing her other hand to play with Kara’s fingers as a blush rose on her cheeks and a shy smile spread across her face. “Do you want to know what I’m thinking?”

Kara smiled. “Always.”

She looked up and bit her lip. “I think that I love you too. And that I’d really like to kiss you now if that’s alright.”

Kara brought her hand up to cup Lena’s other cheek as Lena’s hands slid around her waist. “I think that would be more than alright.”

Butterflies exploded in her chest at the feel of Lena’s lips against her own and warmth ran through her, down to her fingertips. Their kiss was broken by the joy bubbling up inside them, smiles too wide to continue.

They rested their foreheads together and Kara hoped more than anything that this would be her last first kiss. Because she wanted to spend the rest of her life learning how to love and be loved by Lena Luthor.


End file.
